You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!
This HaBO request comes from Irene, who is trying to identify a book her housemate keeps talking about:
My housemate has been describing this book to me, and I am, frankly, desperate to read it. Things she remembers:
The heroine is the illegitimate daughter of a nobleman and his mistress.
The heroine is destined for a life as a mistress, and her mother and her mother’s friends are trying to set her up with a nice young man as her first paramour.
The heroine and hero agree to fake a relationship for REASONS. (Her mother and her friends are trying to do right by her within their scope, they are not bad people)
He is supposed to bring her flowers, and the heroine’s mother sees him bring…a bare branch? And her friend goes “No! This is trouble! He has brought her a BARE ROOT ROSE! THE MOST ROMANTIC GIFT.”
At some point the hero and heroine are FORCED INTO MARRIAGE and he goes off feeling like he was LURED.
The heroine’s parents have broken up because her father said ‘how dare you lure my daughter into being a mistress!’ and her mother is all ‘I’M YOUR MISTRESS’.
At some point the heroine, her mother, and her new (grand-)mother-in-law are all living together. The (grand-)mother in law has a history of dodgy marriages.
My housemate is no longer sure it was any good, but she keeps describing it, and I must know.
Who knows this one?
The Perfect Mistress
by
Betina Krahn
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This sounds a little like THREE WEEKS WITH THE PRINCESS by Vanessa Kelly? I didn’t finish it, so I can’t swear to that.
Betina Krahn The Perfect Mistress?
I second the Betina Krahn…though like your housemate i’m not sure it was good
Well, since this is the basic plot of Gigi, I can see why someone would want to read it.
I remember the rose bush and another scene with shoes, and he-how to say this-palms her breasts but they had been planting the rose bush, so her mother and the other women knew there had been some fooling around.
@DonnaMarie: My thought exactly! *runs off to read Gigi again*
As has been said above, it sounds like Gigi. It also reminds me of something by Jennifer Blake with the mistresses wh live on Rampart St. but I know it is none of those.
I can see why your housemate if curious about it. Looking forward to the solution.
We are fairly sure it is The Perfect Mistress and I will be delightedly investigating further!
This is absolutely not the book you’re referencing, but if you want something thematically similar that I remember enjoying, you could try The Courtesan’s Daughter by Claudia Dain